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Karl Malone is one of basketball's greatest players. The two-time MVP ranks second all-time in points scored with 36,374, behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 38,387. He was paid $19.25 million dollars by the Utah Jazz last year; this year, he will be paid $1.5 million, the veteran minimum, by the Los Angeles Lakers.

Both these underpaid superstars have not-quite-as-underpaid superstar sidekicks, too: Gary Payton (future Hall of Famer) is playing for $4.9 million this year, down from $12.6 million last year and Teemu Selanne (919 points, 801 games) was signed for $5.8 million dollars, down slightly from the $6.5 million Selanne would have received had he not opted out of his contract with the San Jose Sharks.

The Lakers now boast four Hall of Famers in the starting lineup. The Avs sport Kariya, Selanne, Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic, and Milan Hedjuk on their top two lines. Both are now heavy favorites to win their respective championships.

Both these star duos decided to join their new teams in tandem. Without Payton, the Lakers would not have Malone. Without Selanne, the Avs would not have Kariya. Said Kariya at the news conference announcing his signing: "When we both became free-agents, we made a hockey decision. We both said, 'Forget about the money, where's the place we want to play?' And Colorado jumped out at both of us immediately. So we made things work monetarily."

Forget about the money? All should hail such magnanimousness in a sports figure. After all, greed drives athletes, doesn't it? We've been denouncing selfish athletes leaving their hometown teams for years, and now, finally, here are examples to follow. Except that Malone, Payton, Kariya, and Selanne actually remain greedy, but now they have been so rich for so long that their greed has turned from money, which they have pots and pots of, to championships, which they have none of.

The free-agent markets in both the NBA and NHL, once trading floors buzzing with silly money, accusations of greed and unlevel playing fields, and more complaining than could fit in LeBron's Hummer, now more closely resemble elementary school playgrounds where all the cool athletic kids decide to be on a team together and kick the crap out of the fat kids with glasses.

However, should the cool kids successfully kick the crap out of the fat kids for their rings as expected, nothing but derision should be heaped upon them and their hollow achievements.

Malone and Payton, frustrated all these years with good-but-not-good enough teams surrounding them, now look to piggyback on two superstars with three rings already. They're role players this year. Gary Payton is now Devean George. Karl Malone is now Mark Madsen. They'll probably get their rings and enter the pantheon of "all-time greats" because they've got them, but they earned them as much as much as the Lakers' designated scrubs, Stanislav Medevenko and Jannero Pargo.

As cynical as Payton and Malone's moves to L.A. are, aging stars grasping for a championship they couldn't earn on their own are nothing new, from Oscar Robertson riding Moses Malone to Ray Borque lifting Patrick Roy, Peter Forsberg, and Joe Sakic's Stanley Cup.

Kariya's move, though, is something of a different kind, and disturbing one. A restricted free-agent, Kariya was cut loose by the Mighty Ducks, who saw the NHL's extremely tight free-agent market and figured that they could resign their marquee star for less than the $10 million they were on the hook for if they gave him a qualifying offer. This was not a bad bet; the Ducks had several things going for them, including Kariya's professed love for Anaheim and the Ducks organization, a team that came within a single game of the Cup last year, and the league's best young goalie, Conn Smythe-winning Jean-Sebastian Giguere.

But when Avs GM Pierre Lacroix swooped in, dangling slightly more than a tenth of his previous year's salary, Kariya took the bait. Why? Well, aside from the fact that it's hard to feel manly in teal and purple, Kariya, good friends with former Duck Selanne, wants to win a championship. And he thinks the best place to do that is Colorado. Which is one thing if Kariya was planning on spending any amount of time there. But he's not.

The NHL's rather Byzantine free-agency system prevents players making more than the league average from becoming unrestricted free-agents until age 31. The league average next year is projected to be at least $1.5 million. Kariya's one year, $1.2 million dollar contract will cut him loose again next year. Kariya's Cup, should he get it, will be the result of a one-year moonlight in Colorado.

And it will be as hollow as the Florida Marlins' World Series victory.

The trend of free-agent stars gravitating to the best teams at ridiculous prices undermines everyone's holy grail, competitive balance. The only interesting thing about this year's NBA season is watching the Lakers destroy all comers.

David vs. Goliath makes a good story, but not a good season, especially when David doesn't have a slingshot because it signed with Goliath for the veteran minimum. The NHL will be more open than the NBA -- there are legitimate teams in the East in the NHL -- but the Avs are going into the season with a stacked deck.

And meanwhile, players such as Kariya and Malone get lauded because it's "all about the ring." We should all miss the days when it was all about the Benjamins. Assembling a winning team was an exercise in asset management and chemistry. Some teams had more assets than others, sure, but the New York Rangers were and are a wonderful example of money buying whole heaps of nothing.

The ever-increasing obsession with obtaining a championship for yourself by hook or by crook, no matter the indignity endured to get it, is annoying at best and potentially extremely damaging to almighty competitive balance in the long-run, if the trend continues.

Instead of the natural rise and fall of teams, sports fans will be exposed to propped-up dynasty after propped-up dynasty, each unnaturally sustained after its natural period by a steady influx of desperate loser stars from other teams seeking validation for their careers.

For the love of all that is good and right in the world, sports stars, take the money. Take the pots and pots of money. Please.

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